George Miedecke escapes heavy shunt

George Miedecke has emerged unscathed after making heavy contact with a concrete wall during the fourth hour of the Bathurst 12 Hour.

A dejected Miedecke explained that fumes played a small part in the incident which saw car #35 run through the gravel trap and hit the wall at Hell Corner on Lap 76.

However Miedecke has accepted the majority of the blame for the crash in the machine he was sharing with Tony Bates and Ash Walsh.

The Aston Martin driver had earlier suffered a vomiting attack during the first stint of the race due to fumes filling the cabin of the Miedecke Stone Motorsport V12 Vantage which persisted until the car’s ultimate demise.

“One of the driver cooling vents had come unhooked, so we had a hole of about 75mm just straight into the engine bay,” Miedecke told Speedcafe.com

“In the first run I threw up under Safety Car pretty bad, got out, and Batesy had the same thing.

“Ash didn’t really have any time under Safety Car so he was going, going, going (at race speed all the time) it was all good.

“On that last run when it was Whincup in front of me and then the Merc (#22 STM entry), we were all sort of running the same pace.

“I was 150m behind Whincup and I still could smell fumes.

“I thought; ‘what is going on here?’, and then no one to blame but myself.

“(I) Hit the brakes at what I thought was the same point, turned in, unhooked myself, and these things have got ABS so you hit the gravel, you go straight through it.

“I wouldn’t say I was distracted, (the fumes) just take the toll on your fine reactions a little bit.

“I’m not passing the buck, it was my fault.”

The crash capped off an eventful day for car #35, with the team having earlier plugged a leak which was causing fluid to spill onto the pedals.

Miedecke confirmed that the pedals were dry at the time of the Hell Corner crash.

Initial indications from the Port Macquarie-based driver are that the Aston Martin is not a write-off despite the right-front corner needing replacement.

The shunt brought a premature end to a promising day for Miedecke Stone Motorsport, with both Miedecke and Ash Walsh running competitively after the latter qualified the car fourth in the Top 10 Shootout.